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Important mobile digital marketing trends to be aware of:

By Shan Balasuriya Posted Date: 2016-09-26

The use of smartphones has sky rocketed over the last 2-3 years, resulting in more people searching for what they want using their mobile devices while on the move. More people are engaging with content on the internet via their mobile devices – this means that mobile digital marketing is a critical part of marketing for any modern business whether small or large.

Some mobile marketing trends have become very important that ignoring them could have a negative impact on how people perceive your business and its branding. Below we discuss some of the key trends that you must be aware of and consider implementing as part of the online digital marketing strategy for your business:

Multi-device friendly mobile marketing: Mobile internet use and online searches are not just limited to smartphones, there are now several different connected devices that must be considered such as a tablet and smart watch. In addition to this there are other platforms such as smart TV’s, gaming consoles and smart home appliances.

When people make a purchase online the process generally involves the use of several devices and doesn’t necessarily start and finish on the same device. For instance the user may see a TV or Social Media Ad, then research on the product or service using their mobile phones, later completing the purchase on their laptop or tablet. Considering the fact that consumers take a multi-device pathway to convert into a sale, it is vital to take these various devices into consideration when formulating your digital marketing strategy.

E-commerce and Social Media: Facebook has started focusing on providing ecommerce integration options to businesses with a facebook page – this includes ‘Buy Now’ call to action buttons that can be included as part of your business facebook page. In addition, other social media like Instagram has also started to push ecommerce advertising and we are starting to see ecommerce entering the space of social media. It’s time to get on the wagon early and take advantage of this - make use of social media as an effective tool for lead generation and direct sales.

New Payment Options: Payment gateways and systems are changing too, now there are so many new methods of paying for a product or service directly from your mobile device. Samsung for instance has a payment platform that can be used almost at any location, regardless of whether it’s been optimized for it or not. Apple also has its proprietary ApplePay system that is being rolled out to various payment terminals and online shopping carts. With these two methods you can simply use your device to make a secure payment even without having your bank card on you.

Services like PayPal are also starting to work with big businesses and retail chains to provide consumers with better online payment options. Google wallet is another service that you can use to store and authorize online payments from a pre-defined list of cards with ease.

Mobile Apps in Google Search: Google has updated their mobile search results page to display mobile apps as part of the first page results. This means that when a user makes a search for something on a mobile device, app options are shown to them that can be downloaded from the app store. These results have meta-tags associated with them that show things such as pricing and rating. If your business has an app or you are promoting an app then this is something that must be considered as part of the digital marketing & SEO strategy. If you don’t have an app (relevant to your business, product or service) then it might be a good idea to make on just to take advantage of the popularity.

Instagram Ads, Snapchat & WhastApp Marketing: The number of users on instagram has been growing on a daily basis, and Instagram have started providing businesses with marketing options. A lot of big businesses are already making use of this service, as Instagram is an app dedicated to image sharing, which means visually appealing Ads have a good chance of converting potential customers. It is a good idea to keep an eye on this trend and increase focus on your instagram marketing strategy, as it will no doubt become a key player in the digital marketing world.

Mobile apps like WhatsApp and Snapchat have become very popular and people tend to use both in some cases even more so than they use facebook. These applications are significantly growing in their user base and have the potential to become powerful marketing tools for business.

Video Ads: Video Ads can sometimes be considered controversial as there are different opinions as to how effective they really are. Different people have reported a variety of different success rates. Regardless, there is no denying that online video Ads are definitely a good way to market your business, depending on what your product or service is. More big brands are starting to use them and video streaming sites like YouTube are structured around advertising. It can be a good idea to allocate some resources to an online video advertising strategy and see if it works for your business.